On a performance review for one of my earliest writing jobs, my manager wrote a terse comment: “Learn to stop wrestling with a project and get it launched.”
I knew just what he meant. Before beginning any writing project, be it an article, a business letter, or even a paper for my Christian Science association, I had a bad habit of stopping first to listen to a chorus of doubts. Like backup singers in a rock song, those inner voices were always woo-wooing their negative refrain: “Can’t do it. No, no! You just can’t do it. You don’t have the talent, don’t have the skill—and don’t have the motivation anyway!”
I used to let myself listen to this whining, and it would really bog me down. The more I wrestled with those discouraging thoughts, the more formidable the writing project would look, and the more tempted I’d be to procrastinate.
